“I never considered riding enduros to be racing.”

Piet Boonstra thought of it more as an international challenge, where fearlessness and quick thinking were the means to the ultimate goal: finishing the ride. His racing career began in the days before specialized off-road motorcycles and high-tech gear, when riders still calculated time in their heads. Piet rode in the golden age of enduros.

Devoted RoadBike readers may recall our interview with Piet in the February/March 2004 issue, in which he described the challenges of adventure touring. The 2002 AMA Road Rider of the Year, he’s logged nearly a million miles on two wheels, including seven round trips from New York to Alaska.

In his new book, The Golden Age of Enduros, Piet begins with the story of his first bike, a ’47 Harley flathead. Just moments after paying for it, he wedged the Harley between two parked cars. From there, he writes with ingenuous humor about the ’50s motorcycle culture, running from the police, and the inauspicious beginning of his off-road racing career.

In later chapters, we learn how Piet’s skill and determination led him from sinking his

’47 Harley into Yonkers Swamp to winning the 1966 New England Enduro Grand Championship aboard a ’62 500 Triumph. Along the way, he collected more than 200 racing awards. But that’s not really what the book is about.

With terrific photos and anecdotes, Piet tells the story of American off-road riding in its finest hour, “when having fun doing it was more important than winning.” He describes how he and other racers wrestled heavy bikes through difficult trails and water holes, occasionally sailing over the bars or sinking to their waists, only to get up and keep going. The unique personalities of the racers really come through in his writing, and some of the stories are almost too amazing to be true.

Piet shows how the American enduros culture evolved, as people and technology changed from decade to decade. He draws a clear line at the end of the golden age, however, by pointing out that factory sponsorship, mass-produced enduro bikes, body armor, and onboard timekeeping computers took many of the challenges out of the sport. Funny… as I sit here thinking about reviewing a purpose-built dual-sport bike, I wonder if I’d have had what it took to ride off road, back in the day. RB

SOURCES

The Golden Age of Enduros $20
by Piet W. Boonstra
320 pp.
Adventure Touring Publishing
914/739-5499
pboonstra@aol.com